Kia-ora
Many business people say that a country should be run like a
business.
Maybe they are right. It should be run like a SUCCESSFUL business.
It is appropriate for Government to take lessons from business
success, and the reverse.
But when it comes down to details, right wing Neo-Liberal
business does not want Government and country they govern to become too
successful, or democratic. They are doing too well by taking advantage of slack
regulation (regulation which favours them over the rest of society) and
politicians foolishness.
In business a manager who fails to plan for the future would
be sacked.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business say that Government should
keep out of strategic planning.
Successful business constantly plan advertise and strategise
to “beat the market”.
Right wing
Neo-Liberal business insist that Government should muddle along, leaving it to
“the market”.
Successful businesses involve as many people in decision
making as possible.
Successful businesses involve their staff in decision
making,.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business want Government dictatorship,
so long as they run the dictators, and oppose democratic moves like MMP and BCIR.
Even New Zealands, non binding, referenda, the only
Democratic voice allowed in New Zealand, have such a freshold for a triggering
petition that they are guaranteed to be very infrequent.
Successful businesses ensure they have a competitive advantage.
Monopoly is even better.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business insists that we give up any
competitive advantage with so called “free trade agreements” and open licence for foreign corporate to
plunder and selling profitable assets.
Successful business gets Government to bend the rules in
their favour.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business insists that we remove trade
protections and rules which work in our favour.
Management silo’s that only look at small part are known to
be dysfunctional.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business says that every part of a
countries infrastructure should be stand alone, dependant on individual profit
and loss without regard to social and economic costs to the country as a whole.
Giving small business and consumers inflated prices for utilities, so utilities
make a profit, for example. North
Americans will remember ENRON.
Successful businesses work for the future of the entire
company. They know that if any one part cannot
take excessive capital, or resources .
Right wing Neo-Liberal business oppose any attempt by
Government to rein in unjustified excessive profit taking from the rest of the
economy. There is a propaganda war in New Zealand from the right wing at the
moment to prevent the extraction of excessive
power profits.
Successful companies train, nurture and look after their
staff.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business insist on dropping wages,
and starving those who cannot work “pour encourager les autres” regardless of the costs in lost demand, (A
cost to business also) welfare and crime.
Successful business has consistent and effective policies,
procedures and rules.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business wants Government to refrain
from regulation, except that which protects them, of course. (For example taking away workers rights and protecting big corporate rights to take as much as they
can) Giving us leaky houses, worker
deaths, finance company failures, wage cuts, full jails and tax payer bailouts.
Lastly, successful business use all their resources as
effectively as possible and use the co-operative efforts of many people to meet
goals.
Right wing Neo-Liberal business would rather countries do
not have goals and that we are all turned into competing worker units.
Right wing propagandists pay lip service to the idea of running
a country like a successful business. In reality they oppose Government
being too good, because it would limit their ability to steal from the rest of
us. They are happy to continue profiting
from a Government that does what they tell them.
One famously wanted to “drown Government in a bathtub”,
because it affected his profits. Several famous NZ business men openly gloated
about how they profited from stealing
tax payer owned infrastructure companies, and asset stripping them.
Good Government, real democracy, improving decision making
by Government, and good effective regulation and protection, for
the majority of a countries citizens, would destroy their gravy train.
Hence the hysterical overreaction to a minor piece of
addition to Government regulation of power companies in New Zealand.
Because it, if it is allowed to happen, is the beginning of the end for the idea of
“the market” and the mean spirited Neo-liberal,
consensus which has delivered so much wealth and power to a greedy few.
Kean on the "Roving Cavaliers of Credit" or How Bankers got to Rule the World.
“”In some ways these conclusions are unremarkable: banks make money by extending debt, and the more they create, the more they are likely to earn. But this is a revolutionary conclusion when compared to standard thinking about banks and debt, because the money multiplier model implies that, whatever banks might want to do, they are constrained from so doing by a money creation process that they do not control.
However, in the real world, they do control the creation of credit. Given their proclivity to lend as much as is possible, the only real constraint on bank lending is the public’s willingness to go into debt. In the model economy shown here, that willingness directly relates to the perceived possibilities for profitable investment—and since these are limited, so also is the uptake of debt.
But in the real world—and in my models of Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis—there is an additional reason why the public will take on debt:
the perception of possibilities for private gain from leveraged speculation on asset prices.”"
Kean describes exactly the real world effects of current monetary policy.
Both Cyprus and Greece show how Democracy can be overturned at the wim of bankers trying to protect their income, from pushing up asset prices, with loans they should never have been allowed to make, with money they have produced out of thin air. A power only a democratically controlled Government should have.
Recent moves towards legislation, to take money from us to bail out failing banks, again, by the New Zealand Government , shows who our politicians really work for!